More than 130 administrative appeals have been filed against the state Department of Health's Office of Medical Marijuana over a secret evaluation committee's handling of applications to grow, process and dispense medical marijuana in Pennsylvania. More than 130 administrative appeals have been filed against the state Department of Health's Office of Medical Marijuana over a secret evaluation committee's handling of applications to grow, process and dispense medical marijuana in Pennsylvania. (HARRY FISHER / THE MORNING CALL) The competition for 39 permits to grow, process and dispense medical marijuana in Pennsylvania was bound to leave many applicants speed-dialing their lawyers to complain about unfair evaluations. [continues 1874 words]
ALBANY -- New York is looking for industrial hemp growers. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday that an application period is open to participate in the state's Industrial Hemp Agricultural Research Pilot Program. The program is open to researchers, farmers and businesses who wish to research, grow, manufacture and produce industrial hemp in New York. "By expanding industrial hemp research, we are opening the doors to innovative ideas that could provide a major boost to our farms and communities, creating new jobs, and laying the foundation for future economic growth," Cuomo said in a statement. [continues 143 words]
First of its kind in Canada, program covers growing pot and its complex regulations It's got the greenhouse, the curriculum and the necessary approvals. Now all that's needed are up to 25 students keen on becoming the first crop of students to earn a post secondary certificate in growing pot. Niagara College, located in the heart of Ontario wine country, announced Tuesday it will establish a one-year, post-grad program in commercial cannabis production, which it says is the first of its kind in Canada. [continues 375 words]
A southern Ontario college says it will be the first to offer a post-secondary credential in the production of commercial cannabis. Niagara College says the graduate certificate program will launch in the fall of 2018 and aims to prepare students to work in the licensed production of cannabis, which includes marijuana, hemp fibre and hemp seed. The school says the one-year postgraduate program was approved this summer by the Ontario Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development. It will be open to those with a diploma or degree in agribusiness, agricultural science, environmental science/resource studies, horticulture or natural sciences, or an acceptable combination of education and experience. [continues 213 words]
Amy Stalker says she had more control over her own health when she lived in Colorado, where marijuana can be legally prescribed as medicine. Stalker now lives in Kentucky, where medical use of marijuana is banned. A judge dismissed a lawsuit Wednesday against Gov. Matt Bevin and Attorney General Andy Beshear that called for the legalization of medical marijuana in Kentucky. In his opinion, Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate wrote that the Kentucky Supreme Court clearly established in a 2000 decision involving actor and hemp activist Woody Harrelson that the General Assembly has the sole discretion under the state Constitution to regulate the use of cannabis in the state. The courts do not have the authority to intervene, Wingate wrote. [continues 450 words]
My nanny never dealt me dope. That's why I'm flummoxed by the flurry of protests against Premier Kathleen Wynne, accused of being Ontario's nanny-in-chief in the matter of marijuana sales. Pushing dope isn't in the job description for normal nannies. And yet our premier is prepared to serve it up. Seems nanny is now a dirty word in our ideological wars, hurled at any hint of government regulation or red tape: Seatbelt laws, motorcycle helmets, gun registries, booze controls, drug restrictions - all evidence of the nanny state repressing and dressing us down, conspiring to inhibit our presumed right to imbibe and inhale in a haze. [continues 643 words]
Most Ontario residents don't want to see a free-for-all in dope sales My nanny never dealt me dope. That's why I'm flummoxed by the flurry of protests against Premier Kathleen Wynne, accused of being Ontario's nanny-in-chief in the matter of marijuana sales. Pushing dope isn't in the job description for normal nannies. And yet our premier is prepared to serve it up. Seems nanny is now a dirty word in our ideological wars, hurled at any hint of government regulation or red tape: Seatbelt laws, motorcycle helmets, gun registries, booze controls, drug restrictions - all evidence of the nanny state repressing and dressing us down, conspiring to inhibit our presumed right to imbibe and inhale in a haze. [continues 642 words]
My nanny never dealt me dope. That's why I'm flummoxed by the flurry of protests against Premier Kathleen Wynne, accused of being Ontario's nanny-in-chief in the matter of marijuana sales. Pushing dope isn't in the job description for normal nannies. And yet our premier is prepared to serve it up. Seems nanny is now a dirty word in our ideological wars, hurled at any hint of government regulation or red tape: Seatbelt laws, motorcycle helmets, gun registries, booze controls, drug restrictions - all evidence of the nanny state repressing and dressing us down, conspiring to inhibit our presumed right to imbibe and inhale in a haze. [continues 647 words]
He was licensed to grow hemp in Kentucky. Police say they found marijuana instead. Kentucky officials are reviewing a case that could result in a former sheriff being kicked out of the state's pilot program to grow industrial hemp after he was charged with cultivating marijuana. Former Jackson County Sheriff Denny Peyman is thought to the first participant in the hemp program to be arrested for allegedly growing marijuana, hemp's psychoactive cousin. Peyman has been approved to grow hemp since 2015, the year after he lost reelection and left office, according to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. [continues 570 words]
Federal interference with Pennsylvania's medical-marijuana program would "force more suffering on some of our most vulnerable constituents," Gov. Wolf said in a letter to Rep. Charlie Dent (R., Pa.), who serves on the House Appropriations Committee. Wolf is alarmed that Congress could eliminate a provision in an appropriations bill that for four years has prohibited federal agencies from cracking down on the implementation of state-approved medical-cannabis programs. The states considered the provision, known as the Rohrabacher amendment, as tacit protection that gave them permission to launch their cannabis programs. [continues 349 words]
Supporters of marijuana advocate protest outside Amherst courthouse Support for a Cumberland County man charged with marijuana and firearm offences showed up early Monday for his first court appearance since being arrested almost a week ago. Fifty-two year old Daren Wayne McCormick was arrested and charged Aug, 23, after Cumberland RCMP and a street crime unit conducted a search at a Northport home. Ten handguns, a shotgun, drug paraphernalia and what police descried as a large number of marijuana plants were removed from the home. [continues 276 words]
Not one of the growers had any prior experience cultivating the plant, which grows so quickly it's nicknamed "weed." So some problems were to be expected. However, nobody anticipated one complication. "We had some projects that really did everything right, but were completely overrun by weeds," -- real weeds, said Russell Redding, the state's Secretary of Agriculture. "You'd have fields that were beautifully green, but overwhelmed by unwanted species." Sometimes knowledge is hard-won, even in a state with a long history of cultivation dating back to the colonial era and more than a dozen school districts named "Hempfield." [continues 861 words]
Other states allow medical marijuana. Judge asks why Kentucky shouldn't join them. A Franklin Circuit Court judge on Tuesday asked attorneys for the state why Kentucky should not make medical marijuana available to patients who believe it might help them, given that "we've pretty much decriminalized" the drug around much of the nation and even in parts of the state. Judge Thomas Wingate is considering motions by Gov. Matt Bevin and Attorney General Andy Beshear to dismiss a lawsuit filed in June by three Kentuckians who want the legal right to use marijuana as medicine in the state where they live. Wingate said he expects to hand down a decision on the motion in the near future. [continues 649 words]
The largest survey on cannabidiol or CBD usage to date found that women were more likely than men to use CBD and once they started using it, were likely to drop their traditional medicine. A new survey from Brightfield Group and HelloMD covered 2,400 of HelloMDas community of 150,000 members and did a deep dive into the usage of CBD products and their effectiveness. HelloMD is an online community that brings together doctors and cannabis patients. [continues 633 words]
Now the state is taking steps to increase the crop. "We want to be the nation's leader in hemp production,'' Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday shortly before signing legislation intended to boost the commercialization of industrial hemp, which is used in some 25,000 products from cosmetics and animal feed to clothing and biofuels. The state is also pumping $10 million into research for the now-fledgling industry, State Agriculture Commissioner Richard Ball said, after the federal government in 2014 relaxed rules governing the growing of the crop. Industrial hemp, unlike its marijuana cousin, contains no or minimal levels of tetrahydrocannabinol, the ingredient that gets users high. [continues 325 words]
Tens of thousands of people use cannabis in Fresno every day. Hundreds of people work in the cannabis industry, though few will admit it publicly -- and for good reason. Cannabis business is booming in Fresno and Fresno County, even though cultivation and retail sales are banned by local ordinances. The biggest pipe dream in Fresno is that cannabis bans work. In reality, they don't. Even so, the Fresno City Council just voted to prohibit dispensaries and other "recreational" businesses made legal by the passage of Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act. This is disappointing but not surprising. Medical cannabis has been legal since Proposition 215 passed in 1996, but City Hall has never bothered to draft local regulations. [continues 701 words]
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Most of Nevada's recreational marijuana retailers are optimistic an emergency regulation that state officials are expected to approve will help keep them from running out of pot supplies, but some are "running on fumes," an industry official said Tuesday. The State Tax Commission is scheduled to vote Thursday on an emergency measure Gov. Brian Sandoval endorsed late last week in an effort to allow the state to issue pot distribution licenses currently banned by a court order. [continues 448 words]
TEMPLE TERRACE -- Dropping a giant joint in favor of the "USS Maryjane" seemed to smooth the waters for a pro-marijuana entry in this year's Temple Terrace Fourth of July Parade. The new float designed by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws featured the flag-festooned ship crewed by some military veterans and painted with the slogan, "Hemp for Victory." The theme plays off a World War II film from the Department of Agriculture that praised the nation's hemp farmers for their work in creating strong ropes from the stalks of marijuana plants for the armed forces. [continues 227 words]
The organizer behind Northern Ontario's longest running hemp festival is pulling the plug. Robert Neron, a Moonbeam resident and longtime activist in support of freer access to medical marijuana, made the announcement through a posting on social media on Sunday. He said unless someone else comes forward to take over managing the event, the cancellation of Hempfest is likely permanent. In his announcement, Neron also revealed his intention to "retire completely from any activism" in the future. "My health will no longer permit me to do so," he told Postmedia Network in an interview Sunday night. "As for Hempfest, lack of money from sponsors killed the festival I can no longer sustain myself, my health, little less a not-for-profit festival." [continues 351 words]
Dear Editor: In response to Shelley Eberle's letter of May 20, "marijuana legalization is a bad idea." Contrary to popular belief, usage rates among teenagers were monitored the last few years by Scientific American. After Colorado legalized the recreational use and sale of marijuana, they found rates decreasing from 30 per cent of teens using in 2011 to 21 per cent in 2015. This has also been the case in Washington state as well as Portugal, as after marijuana was decriminalized, both usage and addiction rates decreased. [continues 136 words]
